


Misunderstanding

by paperstorm



Series: IRL [7]
Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Established Relationship, Explicit Sexual Content, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-08
Updated: 2015-11-08
Packaged: 2018-04-30 14:34:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5167460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paperstorm/pseuds/paperstorm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <img/>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Misunderstanding

It’s a bad day. And it shouldn’t be. They have a day off in a place called St. Paul, and it’s July, and it’s a beautiful, sunny day and there are whole hours to fill, no commitments, and Luke  _should_  be happy today. He isn’t, and it’s all Michael’s damn fault.  
   
Earlier, Ashton was bouncing around the tour bus, over-excited like a squirrel and eager to get off the bus and away from their security detail and out into the world to experience everything a new city has to offer. It’s his thing. He loves new places, new people, new adventures. He loves getting lost in skyscrapers, driving out into the desert, stopping the bus on an empty highway in the middle of the night to wander along the shoulder and look up at the stars where no city lights exist to block them out. He was born to be an artist, and Luke loves that about him.  
   
Calum usually goes along on Ashton’s little impromptu expeditions, and sometimes Luke does too but more often than not, especially this year, he doesn’t. He stays with Michael, because for all his volume and boisterousness and rowdy spirit, when they have time off Michael likes to just hole up somewhere quiet. To decompress. Ashton finds his solace out in the big, wide world, and Michael finds it in a quiet, safe place where he can relax.  
   
Luke and Calum tend to fall somewhere in between their two opposite personalities, and since Luke and Michael became  _Luke and Michael_ , he usually stays in with Michael while Calum becomes Ashton’s partner in crime. Luke doesn’t mind. He loves it, really, because underneath the front he puts up, he’s shy too. He feels so at peace when he’s alone with Michael. There’s so much pressure, sometimes, to be a certain person, to act a certain way, and when Luke is alone with his boyfriend he can just be  _himself_  and not worry about anything else. It’s like meditating. It anchors Luke back to the ground when things spin out of control in their crazy life.  
   
“Let’s  _go_!” Ashton complained, annoyed that his band was taking too long to get ready.  
   
“Where are we going?” Calum asked.  
   
“Out,” Ashton said simply, and Luke thought that’s probably as much as Ash ever knows before he takes off into the wind. He never has a plan. He just lets the world take him on a journey. Luke is jealous, sometimes, of how free Ashton is.  
   
“Okay,” Calum agreed, just going along with it like he always does. He would let any of them lead him anywhere. Calum is the most loyal person Luke knows. “I’m ready. Are you dweebs coming, or what?”  
   
Luke looked to Michael for an answer. He never really cares either way. He’s always game if Michael is, but he’s just as happy to stay in. When they stay in, there’s usually sex involved, so at least a few parts of Luke are always more than willing to forgo banding-time for a different kind of fun.  
   
Michael shrugged, noncommittally. He looked tired that morning, even though they slept all night on the bus as they drove here from Winnipeg.  
   
“Mikeyyyyy,” Ashton whined, being annoying on purpose. He poked Michael’s arm over and over again like a little kid trying to get his mum’s attention. Calum giggled. “Come with us. You never do.”  
   
“Next time,” Michael swore, even though that’s doubtful.  
   
Luke nodded, the decision made, and sat back down onto the couch. Maybe they’ll sneak off on their own, later, to get coffee or something. Luke likes being anonymous in a new place with Michael. It feels like a secret mission, trying to get to a Starbucks and back without being recognized. “Have fun! Take pictures if you see something cool.”  
   
Ashton sighed. “Fine, just, like … try not to fuck him directly  _on_  my bed this time, okay? Please?”  
   
Luke blushed, but grinned anyway, as Calum cracked up in the background, bending over because he was laughing so hard. “Yeah, we’ll try.”  
   
“You should go,” Michael told him.  
   
Frowning, Luke looked up at him. Michael wouldn’t meet his eyes. “You … don’t want me to stay with you?”  
   
Michael shrugged again. “You’ll have more fun, with them. Go.”  
   
Luke wasn’t sure how to take it. Michael’s never asked Luke to leave him alone before, when there was a choice. And he wasn’t  _exactly_ asking that then, but in a way he was. Luke looked over at Calum and Ashton, and they looked similarly bewildered.  
   
“Are you sure?” Luke asked. He didn’t know how to react, and he didn’t want to make a big deal out of what was maybe nothing.  
   
“Yeah,” Michael answered, but he didn’t look happy. “See you later.”  
   
He disappeared into the back of the bus, the sliding door closing behind him; the mirror attached to it reflecting Luke and Calum and Ashton looking confused.  
   
“Okay,” Ashton said. “I guess let’s go, then.”  
   
“Is he mad about something?” Luke worried. He looked at his bandmates, silently asking if one of them had been in some sort of argument with Michael that they hadn’t shared with the group.  
   
“Not that I know of,” Calum replied.  
   
“Should I stay?”  
   
“He said not to.”  
   
“I know, but – ”  
   
“Look, I’m sure he’s fine. We all have days where we’re just in a mood for no reason. He wants to be alone, so let’s leave him alone,” Calum decided, grabbing his wallet and phone and heading out of the bus.  
   
“You coming?” Ashton asked, and didn’t wait for an answer before following Calum.  
   
Luke stared for a moment at his own reflection in the mirror that separated him and Michael, but then got up and trailed after his friends.  
   
Currently, they’re in a restaurant, on a really nice patio overlooking a man-made lake, and Luke  _should_  be having a good time, but he isn’t. His thoughts are stuck back with Michael, alone on the tour bus, and have been since they left nearly two hours ago. On second thought, maybe it’s Luke’s fault. Maybe he did something that he doesn’t remember. Maybe Michael’s mad at  _him_.  
   
He says so. “Do you think Michael is pissed at me?”  
   
Ashton frowns at him. “No. Why?”  
   
“He didn’t want to come.”  
   
“He never wants to come,” Calum says dryly. He sips at a frozen margarita through a pink straw; alcoholic even though it’s before noon and technically he isn’t old enough to drink in America. Only Ashton is. It doesn’t really stop them. “It’s part of his charm. Or whatever.”  
   
“Yeah, but, he didn’t want me to stay with him,” Luke pushes. “He always wants me to stay with him.”  
   
“So he wanted to be alone.”  
   
“But – ”  
   
“Bro,” Calum interrupts. “I love you, okay, you know I do, but every fucking conversation we have can’t be about you and Michael. Especially when he isn’t even  _here_.”  
   
“It isn’t!” Luke protests, although he’s not completely sure that’s true. They tend to take over sometimes. Luke knows they do.  
   
“It’s a beautiful day,” Ashton says, cheery, but a bit forced. “We’re gonna have fun, and Michael is gonna have fun chilling out on his own, like he always has. He’ll play on the X-box and he’ll take a nap and by the time we get back later he’ll be all cheered up.”  
   
The topic is effectively pushed aside, but it doesn’t leave Luke’s mind. He  _tries_  to enjoy himself. He really does. Ashton is an Energizer Bunny. He never gets tired, he never slows down, and usually his energy is contagious. Today, Luke can’t get caught up in his relentless positivity. It just irritates him. Their collective mood is stilted and wooden all day. Luke knows he’s getting on his friends’ nerves, and they’re getting on his, and it isn’t the fun Ashton promised it would be.  
   
*           *           *  
   
It isn’t better when they get back, either. Michael still looks tired. He wants to sleep alone that night. They always get four hotel rooms but they only ever use two or three. Luke can’t remember the last time he didn’t sleep with Michael when they had the option. It’s been months, maybe even years. Luke spends the night tossing and turning, fitfully falling in and out of sleep, in a queen-sized bed that feels huge and cold without Michael in it next to him.  
   
In the morning, Michael doesn’t want to come out for breakfast with them. By this point, Luke’s too upset to even argue. He just leaves with Calum and Ashton. He’s aware that he looks like shit, and he’s aware that he’s in a terrible mood. He can’t help either. Conversation at breakfast is even less fun than their shared meal yesterday. Luke is temperamental and short-fused, snapping at his friends and at their waitress, and he’s  _never_ like that. He’s so done with himself well before his friends are.  
   
“Oh my God, you are such a stupid fucking dick!” Calum cries, finally losing his temper when their waitress takes too long to refill their coffee and Luke gives her an unnecessarily dirty look as she does come around with a fresh pot. It’s been coming all morning.  
   
“Cal,” Ashton says softly.   
   
“No!” Calum rounds on Luke, with wide, angry eyes. He’s way too loud for a restaurant; people around them are staring. “Are you seriously this fucking stupid? Michael  _loves_  you, you idiot! If he didn’t want you around yesterday then yeah, maybe something is going on, but it’s something else! He wasn’t feeling well, or he’s upset about something that has nothing to do with you!”  
   
“Well, he’s not acting like he loves me!” Luke protests. He’s being such a whiny brat, and he knows it, but he can’t help it. He’s upset.  
   
“Why?” Calum demands. “Because he wanted to be alone for a few hours? Because he doesn’t want to spend every single second of his life with you attached to his right hip? Everybody needs a  _break_  sometimes, it doesn’t mean he stopped loving you for fuck’s sake! If the two of you can’t make it over something this stupid then the rest of us should just give up on love right now.”  
   
“It isn’t about wanting to be alone! This is our  _thing_ , Cal. You and Ash go out, me and Michael stay in together. This is what we do, this is how we fuckin’ cope with everything! And he suddenly doesn’t want to do it anymore?”  
   
Calum just stares at him, shaking his head like he doesn’t know how to comprehend this conversation, and then turning to Ashton and desperately muttering, “I can’t. I can’t  _deal_  with them.”  
   
“Take a walk,” Ashton says decisively, commanding in the way he can be sometimes – not bossy, just taking charge of a situation. When Calum begins to argue, Ashton shoots him a no-nonsense expression, so serious even Luke is scared a little. “I’m not asking.”  
   
Calum rolls his eyes but gets up and walks away, mumbling about how no one is ever on his side.   
   
Ashton turns to Luke and his face softens a little. “Come with me,” he says, leading Luke to the bathroom. Luke follows, wondering if he’s about to be screamed at even more, but Ashton just sits on the counter-top and nods for Luke to join him. When Luke does, Ashton puts an arm around his shoulders.   
   
“What are we doing?” Luke asks, warily. He likes cuddling with Ashton as much as the next person, but maybe a public men’s restroom isn’t the best place to do it.  
   
“You’re having a shitty day.”  
   
“So?”  
   
“So talk to me.”  
   
Luke sighs. He folds his hands in his lap and looks down at them. “You don’t need to do this, it’s … it doesn’t matter. I’m being dumb.”  
   
“No, you aren’t. You’re upset. Tell me why.”  
   
“I just …” Luke chews on his lip ring. He still isn’t fully comfortable talking about things like this with his band. Luke wonders if he ever will be, and wouldn’t bet on it. “It’s hard sometimes, Ash. Hard to like … be with somebody, and you can’t tell anyone or act in public like you’re together, so … when we can be alone it’s like. It’s where we kinda reconnect, or whatever.”  
   
Luke squirms a little, discomfort swelling in his chest and making the words hard to get out.  
   
“I know,” Ashton tells him. “I get that. We all get it, that’s why Cal and I leave you to it.”  
   
“So why didn’t he want to do it yesterday? He’s never sent me away before.”  
   
“I don’t know. Calum is right though, man.  I don’t think anyone in like the world has ever loved someone more than Michael loves you.”  
   
Luke’s cheeks burn. “No way.”  
   
“Yes way. He loves you so much it’s gross. Something else is going on with him right now. Maybe you should go back to the hotel and figure out what it is.”  
   
“Guys.” Calum walks into the room, holding his phone. “Luke, you need to see this.”  
   
Luke frowns at him. “What?”  
   
“I texted Mikey. Told him if he was mad at you he needed to man up and tell you because you were driving us mental.”  
   
“Dude!” Luke cries, annoyed.  
   
“No, listen.” Calum insists. He holds out his phone for Luke to take. “He didn’t answer me, but he tweeted something.”  
   
Luke takes the phone and looks at the screen. Next to Michael’s picture, under the name @Michael5SOS, are the words  _Still wrapped around your god damn finger_. His heart leaps into his throat.  
   
Ashton peers over his shoulder, reading the tweet, and then groans. “Okay, fuck, we’re going back.”  
   
*           *           *  
   
Knocking on the door of Michael’s hotel room gets them no answer, so they find the bus in the carpark and notice a light on inside. It’s deserted otherwise, so it must be Michael.  
   
“Can you go in first?” Luke asks Ashton. He  _knows_  how stupid he’s being, but if Michael is really upset, he might not want to see Luke.  _Wrapped Around Your Finger_ is their song. It always has been. They wrote it together, and it means more to the two of them than they’ve ever said to anyone but each other. Michael’s tweet scares Luke, because he doesn’t know what it means.  
   
“Are you in grade school?” Ashton groans. “Go talk to your boyfriend!”  
   
“What if he doesn’t want to talk to me?”  
   
Ashton rolls his eyes and grumbles about it, but he climbs up the stairs onto the bus.  
   
Luke doesn’t look at Calum. He’s too embarrassed. He hates today. Three minutes later, his phone rings, and it’s Ashton, from inside.  
   
“He isn’t mad at you.” Ashton’s voice sounds half irritated and half amused, like he thinks Luke and Michael are both enormous morons but he still loves them anyway in spite of it.  
   
Luke blinks. “And?”  
   
“Will you just come in here and talk to him?”  
   
Luke hangs up his phone, shoves it back into his pocket, and apprehensively steps onto the bus. He finds them in the back, on the lounge that curves along the back wall of the bus.  
   
“Hey,” Luke starts, glancing at Michael and then awkwardly playing with the hem of his shit.  
   
“Tell him,” Ashton says to Michael, and when Michael just blinks a few times and looks away, Ashton does it for him. “He thinks you’re missing out on having fun with me and Cal when you don’t come with us.”  
   
“What?”  
   
“He thinks you want to come, but you don’t because of him. And that you’re gonna end up resenting him for it, or something stupid like that.”  
   
Luke shakes his head, because Michael is so wrong. “Mikey?”  
   
“I’m holding you back,” Michael mumbles. “It isn’t fair.”  
   
“Cal and I are going back out. Fix this.” Ashton gets up and leaves, patting Luke on the shoulder as he passes and closing the sliding door behind him.  
   
“Is that really what you think?” Luke asks quietly.  
   
“It’s true, isn’t it?”  
   
“ _No_ ,” Luke insists. “If I wanted to go with them, I would go! I don’t because I’d rather be with you, don’t you know that?”  
   
“It’s always been like this, Luke. When we were in school, we never went to parties and stuff because I didn’t want to. You stayed with me in my room, when I know you would’ve gone to things if it wasn’t for me. And now it’s four years later and it’s still happening. I realized that the other day. It’s this pattern we’ve all fallen into. Cal and Ash go off and have fun, and you stay with me. I don’t wanna be the reason you have to skip things you wanna do.” Michael sniffs and wipes his nose with the back of his hand.  
   
Luke’s chest aches. “You’re not. I want to be with you. I’m wrapped around your god damn finger, too.”  
   
Michael looks at Luke, and his eyes are sad.  
   
“I’m sorry,” Luke whispers. “I should have stayed, yesterday.”  
   
Michael shakes his head, and opens his arms. Luke stumbles over to him and falls down against him, letting Michael fold him up in a hug and pushing his face into Michael’s neck.  
   
“I’m so stupid,” Luke mumbles.  
   
“Shh,” Michael soothes. He hugs Luke so tightly and kisses his hair. “I’m stupid. I should have told you what I thought instead of just making you leave.”  
   
“I don’t feel like I’m missing out,” Luke promises. “On anything. I like hanging out with Cal and Ash, I like doing things, but I like being with you more.”  
   
“Yeah?” Michael sounds hopeful.  
   
“Michael, it’s … when we’re together and stuff? It’s the only time I really feel like I can breathe properly. It’s when the world stops spinning so fast. I need it too. It isn’t just you.”  
   
“I’m not …” Michael exhales. “I feel like I’m not very much fun sometimes.”  
   
“You?” Luke asks, laughing a little. “You’re the life of the party.”  
   
“Yeah, but … then I wanna stay in and do nothing, and – ”  
   
Luke cuts him off with a kiss. He moves, climbing into Michael’s lap as their lips slide together. He sits over Michael’s thighs, reaching out and holding Michael’s cheeks in his hands. Michael arches up into him, wrapping his arms around Luke’s waist. One hand pushes up under Luke’s shirt, his warm hand pressing to the small of Luke’s back.  
   
“Staying in and doin’ nothing with you is my favorite thing in the world,” Luke murmurs. He licks at Michael’s bottom lip and then his mouth travels, small kisses along Michael’s jaw. “Things get so hectic. We’re in a different city every night. We barely have time to shower or eat some days. It’s like living in a hurricane. When we get a day off, and I can just be with you? Mikey, that’s … that’s where I find peace. I know that sounds lame, but it’s true.”  
   
Luke kisses Michael’s cheek, and then the bridge of his nose, and then both of his closed eyelids. Drops of moisture play along Michael’s eyelashes, so Luke kisses them too, tastes the salt on his lips. Michael’s arms tighten around Luke’s waist.  
   
“This is my home,” Luke tells him softly. “Right here, in your arms.”  
   
Michael shakes his head, and when he exhales it comes out shaky, laced with carefully controlled emotion.  
   
“I love you,” Luke whispers.  
   
“Love you so much,” Michael answers. He opens his eyes, blinking away tears.  
   
Tipping forward so his forehead rests against Michael’s, Luke breathes him in, trailing one hand down Michael’s chest to press between his legs. Michael isn’t quite soft in his jeans, and Luke isn’t either, his body responding to being this close. He rubs at Michael’s cock as it hardens, swallowing Michael’s soft sighs in another kiss. Michael’s hips tilt upwards, asking for more, so Luke pops the button and pulls the zipper down so he can slide his hand inside, fingers curling around Michael’s cock. It’s hot against his hand and he strokes it slowly, twisting his wrist over the head, rubbing his thumb over the slit, smearing precome around. He brings his thumb up to his own mouth to taste. He loves Michael’s flavor on his tongue, loves the way Michael moans and kisses him harder once Luke’s hand is out of the way.  
   
“Luke,” Michael breathes. His fingers dip into the back of Luke’s jeans, pressing into his skin, finding the cleft of Luke’s ass and petting at it.  
   
“Wanna ride you,” Luke rasps. “Right here.”  
   
“Fuck,” Michael gasps. “Yeah?”  
   
Luke nods. He rises up onto his knees for just a moment, so Michael can wrestle tight black denim down to Luke’s thighs and then he sits again, kissing Michael messily while Michael’s fingers slip between the cheeks of his ass and touch him.  
   
“I don’t have …” Michael starts. “I mean, not here. It’s in my bag.”  
   
“Don’t need it,” Luke tells him.  
   
“Luke.”  
   
“I don’t  _want_  it.” Luke dips down to drag his teeth gently over Michael’s earlobe. “Just wanna feel you. Wanna still feel it tonight, when we’re on stage.”  
   
“You’re gonna kill me,” Michael groans.  
   
“Please,” Luke murmurs, knowing full well Michael’s never been able to deny him anything.  
   
Michael brings his fingers up to Luke’s lips. “Get ‘em wet, then.”  
   
Luke grins at him and sucks Michael’s fingers into his mouth, licking them up and down, coating them with spit. Michael watches him with dark, hungry eyes, the green boarders almost hidden by big, black pupils. He lets his fingers slip from Luke’s mouth and reaches around behind him, sliding one into Luke’s body. It isn’t smooth but he works them in while they kiss slowly, and Luke loves the stretch, loves the more pronounced burn as Michael pumps two and then three sticky fingers in and out. He spreads them apart, stretching Luke open.  
   
“Don’t stop,” Luke moans, rocking back against Michael’s hand. He spits into his own hand and then reaches between them again for Michael’s cock, leaking against his belly. Luke strokes it, spreading saliva over it that won’t be quite enough.  
   
“You wanna come like this?” Michael asks, breathlessly. He angles his hand so his fingertips brush Luke’s prostate, and Luke  _could_  come like this, but no, that isn’t what he wants.  
   
He shakes his head to communicate it, so Michael pulls his fingers out. The loss is so much that Luke shivers, but then Michael’s pushing his own jeans down just a little more, just enough to get his cock properly out, and wrapping his arm around Luke’s waist to lift him up. He holds his cock upright so Luke can slowly lower himself onto it, the stretch making him gasp as it stings and then moan as the twinge melts into a warm ache so deep he feels it to the tips of his fingers and toes.  
   
He whimpers and Michael kisses him, breathing heavy into each other’s mouths, moist air passing between them. Michael’s arms are so tight around his back, holding him so close. It’s too dry to move much so Luke just stays where he is, the swell of Michael’s balls against his ass, rolling his hips slowly so Michael’s cock moves around inside him in a slow grind. Michael keeps swearing under his breath, and Luke can’t say anything at all, the tip of Michael’s cock pressing against the spot inside him and sending jolts of electricity along his veins. Michael moves too, pushing his hips up, slow and then fast and then slow again. His tongue slides into Luke’s mouth, kissing him languidly, unhurried but desperate.  
   
“Right there,” Luke manages to whisper, grinding his ass down so Michael’s cock drags against his prostate, pleasure burning bright, torture in the best way.  
   
“Feels so good,” Michael says, his voice soft and low, a ghost against Luke’s lips. He moves one hand between them, wrapping his fingers around Luke’s neglected cock and working it, squeezing around the head, knowing just how to have Luke panting and so close he can taste it.  
   
“Michael,” Luke moans.  
   
“Yeah.” Michael smiles and kisses his cheek. “Gonna mess up my shirt?”  
   
Luke laughs breathlessly. “Didn’t think that one through.”  
   
“Too late now.” Michael’s eyes flutter closed. “M’so close.”  
   
“Me too.”  
   
“You first.”  
   
Luke nods. He holds Michael’s face so he can kiss him again, rolling his hips in a circle. Michael’s hand speeds up, tipping him over the edge, and pleasure washes over Luke in waves. He cries out softy against Michael’s mouth and comes over his fingers. Michael’s hips snap up in broken, half aborted thrusts, and he groans, long and low, as warmth fills Luke up inside.  
   
He falls against Michael’s chest, pushing his face into Michael’s neck as he breathes quick and heavy, the smell of sweat and sex filling his nose. Michael’s arms circle around his back again, holding him tight, not letting him move away even if Luke wanted to. He doesn’t, though. He never wants to move.  
   
“How long before they come back, d’you think?” Michael asks.  
   
Luke assumes he’s talking about the rest of their band. “Just … stay, for a few minutes.”  
   
“M’not going anywhere,” Michael promises. He kisses Luke’s messy hair. “M’sorry I was dumb.”  
   
“I’m so in love with you,” Luke murmurs. “I don’t ever wanna be anywhere but where you are. Everything I do is better if you’re with me.”  
   
“I love you more.”  
   
Luke shakes his head and drags his lips along Michael’s jaw. “Not possible.”


End file.
